Shake Shingles

Filipino's are masters at efficiency in mass transit

Who is driving?? The big screen TV?

Hi-Tech power line work

Can’t think a lot of edifying things to share of late, but we promised to try to get back to weekly, and there are some who actually look for a blog weekly, so I’ll have to come up with something, edifying or not.  As some of you know, Elder Cropper has come down with shingles.  (Why do we say “come down with”? I can see, “is down with”, as in, “down for the count”, or, “down and out”, but why, “come down with?”) Well, regardless or irregardless, he is down, and shingles is the cause (subject/verb agreement becomes a real issue in that last phrase; does shingles begin with a single shingle? Is the disease singular, but the symptom plural?).  According to Melissa, our roving reporter and woman-on-the-street, practically everyone she talks to has had shingles.  According to our internet sources, it can get really ugly and last for literally ever, so the fact that Dean’s has been mild is really a miracle.  He is fatigued, headache-y, then the rash and shooting nerve pain and some skin numbness in patches, but all are on the mild end of what we have been told.  We have slowed WAY down in doing any work, and that is another trial connected to the disease.  We are struggling to stay focused and motivated about our work while unable to do it or plan.  It’s tough.  Although it is true that shingles cannot be passed on, it is contagious in that a person who has not had chicken pox can contract that disease from someone with shingles, so in addition to having to stay home a lot to rest, we feel confined due to possible contagion. But we’ve read that if your sores are healing and covered, it is safe to be around people, so we will teach our class tonight, after he takes lots of ibuprofen and acetaminophen. And we will go on our scheduled trip to Cebu tomorrow.

I guess the edifying part of this is this: when we finally realized what it was, we started on the anti-viral medicine, but it is said to be most effective when started in the first 48, or at most 72 hours, but we didn’t start until 4 or 5 days after the initial symptoms. The missionaries in our area had travelled to Cebu for training, and we were hesitant to call on Elders from the next city, but we did, and they came and gave Elder Cropper a blessing.  I was so proud of them.  They conducted themselves like true representatives of the Savior, and gave the blessing with confidence and power, seeking and gaining the direction of the Spirit. The Elder who sealed the anointing promised a miracle of healing, and we truly feel we have received it.  Like I said, we started the medicine late, but the case has been mild, the pain mostly controllable, and the area affected small. It is still no picnic, but we know God intervened in the severity.

We did take pictures of the sores, but we are going to spare you that experience.  Yuck!!

Okay enough of that. 

Looking up under an Acasai Tree

Does the baby standing up have a child restraint seat?

Mildy interesting language items:   1) In the island group called the Visayas, which cover, I think more than half the Philippines, including the large southern island, Mindinao, the people mostly speak a language called Visaya, though there are other distinct (meaning incromprehensible to each other) dialects with in the region also.  Then, within the dialect of Visaya, is a sub set that has regional differences only—like Scottish, compared to English.  It is called Cebuano. Though Cebuano is a smaller subset of Visaya, it is also more codified/formalized. So, for example, the Book of Mormon is translated into Cebuano, but not into Visaya. 

The National language of the Philippines is called Filipino. (I have no idea why the switch from Ph to F or from one p to two). It was formerly, and is still commonly, called Tagalog. But interestingly, the language spoken by the largest segment of Filipinos in their homes is Visaya. So, at school, the children are spoken to and taught in their mother language (depending on the region), then they study Filipino as a separate subject and English as another separate subject right from grade one.  Imagine! 3 languages in school from 6 years old!!  Unless of course you live in a native Tagolog speaking area, like Manilla, then you are taught in Tagolog, and study the subject of Filippino (same thing) and also study English.

Item 2:  There is no gender in third person in the Visaya language, only singular and plural.  So you can’t say, “give it to her” You can only say give it to siya which means him, her, and/or it or sila which means them.

So, when Filipinos speak English, they have to really work at adding the right gender.  Of course they know the difference between male and female, but in their language, there is no place for it in the pronouns they use, so it's hard to get it straight.  Therefore, we often hear a sentence such as, "the old woman, he said . . ." It's kind of the opposite of Romance languages which have (in my humble opinion) far too much gender--every blessed table and fig is a boy or a girl. Anyway, it does get confusing trying to follow a story where there are several people being told of and the hes and shes are being tossed around, and you're not sure if they are being used correctly or consistently. It's hard to tell if Jane went to school and Mark went to work or vice versa.  And that's when people speak English.

The really big news of the week is that Taylor and Anne will welcome Clara Tilly into the world later today!!  Anne hopes to be delivered of her new little girl in a few hours.  

I'm trying to find what's edifying about us not being there for that, but instead I will focus on the miracle: yet another miracle.